Portman: Iran story looks like “another national security leak from the White House”

Erika JohnsenPosted at 4:01 pm on October 21, 2012

It was only a few months back that there was plenty of hearty suspicion going around concerning the White House’s involvement in a specific string of high-profile national-security leaks to the media, and on MSNBC’s Meet the Press this morning, Ohio Sen. Rob Portman suggested something of the same vein in regards to yesterday’s report on possible negotiations between Iran and the United States, via the NJ:

Portman, R-Ohio, said that the fact both countries are denying the story makes it look like another inappropriate leak from the administration rather than a diplomatic breakthrough.

It looks like “another national security leak from the White House,” he said on NBC’s Meet The Press. “They’ve done a lot of that.” …

Portman added that one-on-one negotiations would also be unwise because it would cast aside countries like France, which have helped marshal sanctions.

“The last thing we want is to abandon our allies on this,” he said.

I point to Portman’s response because he’s the man who’s been tasked with trying to get inside President Obama’s head as Mitt Romney’s debate-practice sparring partner, and since he’s been so heavily involved in the preparation process, this could be a good hint for the tack that Romney will take in Monday’s third and final presidential debate on all things foreign-policy related.

Team Romney has been highly critical of both President Obama’s leak-riddled administration and his handling of the United States’ relationships with Israel and Iran, and it’ll certainly be one of the front-seat issues in the debate. If this is really something that the administration floated to help bolster the president’s foreign-policy creds just before the debate and perhaps something that the president could even bring up himself as a positive during the debate, I’d wager that Romney won’t let it be too easy for him.